By Telesha Ramnarine

THE twelfth Regional Blind Cricket Tournament of the West Indies Cricket Council for the Blind and Visually Impaired (WICCBVI) will be played in Guyana this year, with local players already starting to gear up for participation.

In fact, more than a dozen persons who are blind or visually impaired have started practising for the game, and from these, 14 players from all across Guyana (Berbice, Essequibo, Linden and Georgetown) will be selected to form part of Guyana’s team.
The Guyana Society for the Blind is still in the embryonic phase of planning for the game and has since met with the National Sports Commission (NSC) which has promised to lend a helping hand as far as the Society’s $5.4M budget is concerned.

Manager of the local team Theresa Pemberton, who is also a strong advocate for the blind and visually impaired, told the Pepperpot Magazine that she is confident that things will go well for the game this time around.

In the past when the Society was receiving little or no support for these games, Pemberton had always remained optimistic and gone out of her way to make things happen for the local players.

This time around, though, Director of Sport Christopher Jones has pledged the NSC’s support for the game, scheduled to be played from August 26 to September 2. While the Society is currently writing to arrange sponsors for the game, the NSC has pledged to provide whatever funds remain outstanding.

The game is a four-country tournament, consisting of Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Windward Island, and Guyana.

Pemberton related that those persons from the French-speaking Caribbean countries who are interested in playing blind cricket are expected at the games.
Meanwhile, the NSC has also committed to providing two Guyana National Cricket coaches, and to stand the transportation expenses for those not only playing in the game but whoever would like to come to Georgetown to see the games, irrespective of where they may be living in Guyana. They would first need to contact the Society to indicate their interest.

“The significant thing about this is that it will provide an opportunity to blind persons from all across Guyana,” Jones expressed.

Blind cricket is played with a hard plastic ball, a special ball that makes a very strong sound. The stumps are laid out like conventional cricket but without bails on them. The umpire usually guides the blind persons back to the stump, which they use as a gauge to bowl.

The bowlers bowl underhand style and when they are about to bowl, they ask: “Batsman, are you ready?” When the batsman replies in the affirmative, the bowler then says, “Play!”